Complete Works. Hamilton Alexander

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СКАЧАТЬ beyond question that he always assumed the position of one who toiled with others for the production of a common result, without thinking of reward, either in the nature of approbation or material return. At a time when the lawlessness of the French Republic had extended to the United States, Hamilton was called an aristocrat; and even before this he had been sneered at by his opponents at the Poughkeepsie Convention, Melancthon Smith having "thanked his God that he was a plebeian." A great deal of the dislike of decency, and contempt for blood and brains existed, and found vent in socialistic and even anarchistic conflicts with good order. Possibly some of this abuse was due to Hamilton's advocacy of our obligation to another foreign power, and his uphill work in making a large number of people live up to their treaty with Great Britain. To some minds this meant respect for an aristocratic country, and he was spoken of as a "British sympathizer"; upon one occasion an outrageous story was spread by a lawyer named Purdy, with the evident connivance of Governor George Qinton, to the effect that Hamilton and Adams and the King of England had) in 1798, entered into negotiations to introduce a monarchy into America, and that Canada was to be ceded to the United States, and that Prince Frederick, the Duke of York, and titular Bishop of Osnaburg was to be the ruler. After Hamilton's angry remonstrance Clinton, in a letter written in March, 1804, disclaimed any part in the ridiculous charge, and Hamilton replied as follows:

       Alexander Hamilton to George Clinton.

      Albany, March 9, 1804.

      Sir: I had the honor of receiving yesterday your Excellency's letter of the 6th inst. It is agreeable to me to find in it a confirmation of the inference that you have given no countenance to the supposition of my agency or co-operation in the project to which the story of Judge Purdy relates; and it only remains for me to regret that it is not in your power to furnish the additional clue, of which I was desirous, to aid me in tracing the fabrication to its source.

      I shall not only rely on the assurance which you give me as to the future communication of the copy of the letter in question, should it hereafter come to your hands, but I will take the liberty to add a request, that you will be pleased to make known to me any other circumstances, if any should reach you, which may serve to throw light upon the affair. I feel an anxiety that it should be thoroughly sifted, not merely on my own account, but from a conviction that the pretended existence of such a project, long travelling about in whispers, has had no inconsiderable influence in exciting false alarms, and unjust suspicions to the prejudice of a number of individuals, every way worthy of public confidence, who have always faithfully supported the existing institutions of the country, and who would disdain to be concerned in an intrigue with any foreign power, or its agents, either for introducing monarchy, or for promoting or upholding any other scheme of government within the United States.

      Even his friend, Gouvemeur Morris, ignoring the existence of The Federalist and everything else that Hamilton had written and done in regard to the construction of the Constitution, could not forbear condemning him, and quite unjustly. "Speaking of General Hamilton," he said, "he had little share in forming the Constitution. He disliked it, believing a Republican Government to be radically defective, the British Constitution which I consider as an Aristocracy in fact, though a Monarchy in name. General Hamilton hated Republican Government because he confounded it with Democratic government, and he detested the latter because he believed it must end in despotism and be, in the meantime, destructive of public morals."

      Morris's criticism, which was and is in accord with the views of those who prefer to misunderstand, or who are unable to appreciate Hamilton's consistent and persistent efforts to build up a republic in the true sense of the word, finds refutation in this letter to Timothy Pickering, in which he said:

      This plan was in my conception conformable with the strict theory of a government purely republican; the essential criteria of which are, that the principal organs of the executive and legislative departments be elected by the people, and hold their offices by a responsible and temporary or defeasible tenure.

      And again,

      I may truly then say, that I never proposed either a president, or senator, for life; and that I neither recommended or meditated the annihilation of the state governments. . . .

      These were the genuine sentiments of my heart and upon them I acted.

      If Hamilton was called an aristocrat it was because he was intolerant of presumptuous ignorance, and possessed an intense contempt for anything that was low or coarse or harmful to the country as a whole. It was his warfare upon these things, and his blunt defiance of mob rule that earned for him this reputation.

      If aristocracy be "the rule of the best in the land" his efforts were directed to that end, and the progress of history has certainly made us aware of the contrast between the staid and respectable forms of government, and the emotional and disreputable forms, and the triumph in the end of the stable kind of administration. It is true that for a long time Jefferson and Madison and their party flourished by the utilization of Hamilton's principles for their guidance long after his death, even though they pretended to despise them.

      Hamilton certainly had respect for good blood and its belongings, and his friends were the well-bred and educated men of the world, many of whom came from France; yet in the true meaning of the word, he was intensely democratic, if we are to consider the simplicity of his daily life and his regard for the lowly and oppressed, and the readiness he always manifested to make friends with good men of all conditions and parties always furthering the protection of individual rights.

      That Hamilton was ambitious is demonstrated by everything he did, yet it was not the ambition of selfish men nor the kind which led him to sacrifice others for his own advancement. A parallel, for instance, may be drawn between Napoleon, who was a contemporary, and himself, to the detriment of the former.

      Estabrook, an eloquent New York lawyer, in a rare appreciation says:

      To sum up Hamilton's temperament, therefore, I would say that he was nobly ambitious, but wisely cautious, sometimes most tentative when he was really most assured." When Washington wrote to Adams in his behalf he said: "By some he is considered as an ambitious man, and therefore a dangerous one; that he is ambitious I shall readily grant, but it is of the laudable kind which prompts a man to excel in whatever he takes in hand. He is enterprising—quick in his perceptions—and his judgment intuitively great." The first few words have especial significance, when we consider that Hamilton's enemies had insinuated to Adams that the ambitious designs of the former would minimize his influence.

      At an early age he longed to distinguish himself in the world, and his familiar letter to Edward Stevens, the friend of his childhood, may, in part, be reproduced to illustrate his early aspirations. This was written when he was a boy about twelve.

       Alexander Hamilton to Edward Stevens.

      St. Croix, Nov. 11, 1769.

      ... As to what you say respecting your soon having the happiness of seeing us all, I wish for zn accomplishment of your hopes, provided they are concomitant with your welfare, otherwise not: though I doubt whether I shall be present or not, for to confess my weakness, Ned, my ambition is prevalent, so that I contemn the grovelling condition of a clerk or the like, to which my fortune condemns me, and would willingly risk my life, though not my character, to exalt my station. I am confident, Ned, that my youth excludes me from any hopes of immediate preferment, nor do I desire it; but I mean to prepare the way for futurity. I'm no philosopher, you see, and may be justly said to build castles in the air; my folly makes me ashamed, and beg you'll conceal it: Yet, Neddy, we have seen such schemes successful when the projector is constant. I shall conclude by saying I wish there was a war.

      Whatever his ambition may have been, in later years there does not appear to have been any indication that he expected political preferment СКАЧАТЬ